134 On the Cultivation and Management of Dahlias. 



in with potatoes : a tliird places them in dry sand in a dry- 

 cellar; a fourth keeps them on trellised shelves in the same situ- 

 ation; a fifth under the stages of a green-house, and others in 

 ovens, &c. &c. We have generally kept ours, or at least the 

 more choice ones, in the green-house, where, we think, if it is 

 a dry one, they keep as well as any where: we have also kept 

 them in a cellar, laid on shelves, with good success. In cellars 

 where there are furnaces they keep remarkably well. But as 

 there are but few cultivators who possess green-houses, and fewer 

 who have cellars with furnaces, we can only say that, as far as 

 we are informed, they will keep well in boxes, or on shelves in 

 any ordinary dry cellar. In a damp one they are almost sure 

 to perish. In whatever situation they may be placed, no frost 

 or dampness should be allowed to penetrate. Look them over, 

 at least, onct a month, and if any sign of decay appears it should 

 be cut away- Preserve their names carefully. 



We have thus been explicit, though at the sacrifice of consid- 

 erable space, in order that every thing in relation to their culti- 

 vation might be understood. Many of our friends have given 

 up the growth of this most splendid flower, on account of the 

 ill success which they have experienced. We hope that what 

 ■we have said will explain away all the difficulties in cultivation 

 which have been encountered. We are confident that the dahlia 

 can be grown in any soil, even where it is not, naturally, more 

 than six inches in depth: and the want of proper soil, we believe, 

 has been the one great obstacle to their growth. Insects have 

 been supposed to have caused disappointment in many instances, 

 but we are firm in the belief that the dahlia is so rapid a grower, 

 when flourishing in vigor, that the attacks of these insidious foes 

 are rendered comparatively harmless. I^he worst results which 

 Ave have ever experienced by them, has been the destruction of 

 the petals of some choice and beautiful flower, upon which we 

 had set our hopes, while anxiously awaiting its full expansion. 

 But in one night all our highest expectations have been destroy- 

 ed, and morning has revealed to our eyes a disfigured flower, 

 which, the evening previous, bid fair to excel all that we had 

 imagined lovely in the dahlia. The first time we have perceived 

 these insects was the past season, and so late that we had not 

 time to institute any experiments. In England they are troubled 

 in this way with eanoigs, which they catch by hanging some hol- 

 low reed upon the stake, into which they enter during the day, 

 and are thus entrapped and destroyed. 



It may be supposed that we should say a few w'ords respecting 

 the new varieties. But every year brings forward something 

 superior in beauty, and we have thought it best not to occupy 

 our pages with mere catalogue descriptions. Hoping that what 

 we have written may be the means of extending the cultivation 

 of this magnificent flower, we close our observations at this time. 



